The retail auto business is stressful for all departments. In normal times, employees work 50+ hours per week simply to keep up with the demand from both customers and management. However, during the current pandemic, all departments are working harder than before to not only make a living but also to keep up with the expectations of their…

Service departments account for and absorb most of a dealership’s losses in sales and fixed expenses. That is not going away anytime soon. With new car front-end grosses declining, most dealerships will increasingly rely on service business to, well, stay in business.

The problem isn’t a lack of service business, but a shortage of qualified…

I’ve written many times about the value of training and professional development to employee retention.  Training, in combination with a company culture designed to create engaged employees, can help make a dealership a force to be reckoned with. Employee retention has always been a pain point in the automotive industry, because many employees feel there is no job security.…

Virtually every dealership today uses their website, social media channels, and email to be a part of their “voice” when it comes to communicating with their customers and begin building a “trust” relationship long before the shopper ever visits their store.

The ultimate goal of each of these communications is to drive the consumer to your lot.  Your team is…

When did you last share with someone important why you enjoy him or her? We’re fast to convey disappointment or dissatisfaction with others, but uplifting the attributes in them we like feels rather strange.

Yet when it comes to building loyalty, whether in customers, coworkers or family members, nothing will engage their attention – and draw them to us in…

2013 is off to a busy start.  The automotive industry is coming off of the best year in five years and there is certainly a feeling of promise that 2013 may be an even better year for retail automotive than 2012.  Innovation, technology and connectivity continue to advance at lightning speed.  Consumers are online, on smart phones, on social networks, on review sites, on tablets and devices, sharing information with one another and trusting advertising less and less.  Businesses, including…

As a child when your parents asked you to do something, it meant now!!! When you were asked to do something in school, it was right now!!!

If you truly understand people today, we live in an instantaneous gratification society. People decide on something, they want it now!!! Not only now, do they decide to spend money, buy…